Yet another celebrity
Jun. 19th, 2003 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiThis time, it was Larry Doby.
If you said, "who?" then you're probably not a huge baseball fan.
Larry was the American League's Jackie Robinson. The first black man to play baseball for any American League team (Bill Veeck's Cleveland Indians), making his debut just a few months after Robinson. And a damned fine baseball player. Not that I've seen him play anywhere but on ESPN Classic, but he had a sweet swing -- think Jon Olerud, if you only follow the game today. He was as much a pioneer as Jackie, but he's so often forgotten.
He's a Hall of Famer, of course, although he only got there a few years ago (let's hear it for the Veteran's Committee). I'm glad that happened before he died.
If you said, "who?" then you're probably not a huge baseball fan.
Larry was the American League's Jackie Robinson. The first black man to play baseball for any American League team (Bill Veeck's Cleveland Indians), making his debut just a few months after Robinson. And a damned fine baseball player. Not that I've seen him play anywhere but on ESPN Classic, but he had a sweet swing -- think Jon Olerud, if you only follow the game today. He was as much a pioneer as Jackie, but he's so often forgotten.
He's a Hall of Famer, of course, although he only got there a few years ago (let's hear it for the Veteran's Committee). I'm glad that happened before he died.